Tag Archives: scanning

Sheep scanning recognised as revolutionary tool

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A revolutionary tool for reproductive management of sheep in New Zealand, which has contributed to the country’s improved meat production over the past two decades, has been recognised in the inaugural Sheep Industry Awards, alongside the top flocks and sires for genetic merit.

About 200 people attended an event in Invercargill earlier this month to celebrate sheep farming excellence and to witness the presentation of nine awards covering genetics, production and business innovation. Results of the genetics-related awards were calculated based on breeders’ performance in SIL-ACE (Advanced Central Evaluation) – the large-scale, across flock and breed genetic evaluation of more than 280 ram breeding flocks.

The Silver Fern Farms award for sheep industry innovation went to Rowan Farmer, who was responsible for introducing and promoting sheep pregnancy and eye-muscle scanning technology to New Zealand.

Farmer set up Stockscan in 1991. The primary aim was to scan sheep for eye muscle area, but Farmer’s experience with quarantined sheep at Invermay gave him an insight into the management benefits of pregnancy scanning. Since then, the practice has expanded to include the identification of twins and triplets. Scanning has revolutionised the reproductive management of sheep throughout New Zealand.

In addition, the country’s top performing breeders of meat yielding sheep were honoured. Joseph and Judy Barker’s terminal sire flock ‘The Burn’ Texel stud in Mid-Canterbury rated highest for genetic merit across the SIL-ACE evaluation, The dual purpose (ewe breed) flock rated highest for genetic merit was ‘MNCC’, Edward Dinger’s Coopworth stud in the Waikato. The same flock also won the Alliance High Performance Flock award.

B+LNZ geneticist Mark Young says the process of identifying the top-performing flocks involved analysing the top 25-50 percent of rams for each specified set of traits, before then adjusting the results to account for variatons in flock size.

“This exercise also identified highly-rated sires that were making a big impact in industry. The B+LNZ Super Sires are rated in the top 10 percent for genetic merit in indexes of merit across key traits. They are also rams which have been used a lot, so have the most progeny,” says Young.

The B+LNZ Ltd Award for an individual or business making a significant contribution to the New Zealand sheep industry went to Dr Jock Allison ONZM. Two of the highlights of his career, from the sheep industry viewpoint, have been his work with the Booroola Merino which led to the discovery of a major gene fecundity gene and for importing the East Friesian sheep to this country.

The idea to hold an awards ceremony was initiated by B+LNZ Farmer Council Member and ram breeder Russell Welsh. Welsh says the dairy industry’s track record of celebrating success promoted him to suggest the awards ceremony. “It highlights best practice and,by default, that lifts all farmers.

B+LNZ Ltd chairman Mike Petersen says it is great to see farmers driving an initiative which celebrates the sheep industry, while also highlight the immense value of SIL’s database to the sector.

Other award winners on the night were:

  • AgITO Business Farm Trainer of the Year –Smedley Station and Cadet Training Farm.
  • Dual Purpose plus Worm FEC Flock (Index: Reproduction + lamb Growth + Adult Size + Wool + Parasite Resistance) – Nithdale Romney flock, owned by A Tripp of Gore.
  • Dual Purpose plus Facial Eczema Flock (Index: Reproduction + lamb Growth + Adult Size + Wool + FE Tolerance) – ARDG Romney Flock, R & G Alexander of Tirau.
  • Beef + Lamb New Zealand Super Sires – in addition, top sires were also picked out in six categories: terminal; dual purpose*; dual purpose high performance*; dual purpose plus meat yield*; dual purpose plus worm FED; and dual purpose plus facial ezcema tolerance. A Coopworth Ram owned by Steve Wyn-Harris of Waipukerau won three of those spots (marked *), really making it the Super Sire.

For more information see www.beeflambnz.com.

 

In the news this week …

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We’re starting a new weekly round-up of the week’s top meaty news items. Changes to shipping arrangements have been front page news here in New Zealand and will probably be on the minds of delegates for next Monday’s Red Meat Sector Conference in Queenstown. But there’s also been a ‘world first’ for venison scanning, among other items.

Starting from next month, ports in Wellington and Nelson will be added to Maersk’s Southern Star run, which links New Zealand directly to the Malaysian hub port Tanjung Pelepas, according to the Dominion Post. The more reliable service with the dedicated hub will attract chilled meat exporters, Centreport’s operations general manager Steve Harris is quoted as saying, ” … because the time that the product is on the shelf in Europe … is critical.”

This followed the news, earlier in the week when shippers Maersk and Hamburg-Sud announced that they are withdrawing container pickups from the Port of Timaru, slicing $6 million off that Port’s annual revenue and resulting in the loss of about 50 port jobs. The service will be streamlined and will now operate from Napier to Otago. The new arrangements will come into place in mid-September, just prior to the start of the new meat export season.

Also in Timaru, in what’s said to be a “world first for venison scanning”, meat scanning technology already used for lamb and cattle is to be introduced for deer at Alliance Group’s new venison processing chain at Timaru’s Smithfield site later in the season.

Meanwhile, deer farmers are eyeing Europe, as exporters organise their chilled venison contracts for the European game season, according to a Fairfax news report. Venison prices are said to have “so far maintained a level of stability reflected in the meat schedule prices deer producers were being paid.”

New Zealand beef was amongst a ‘greymarket’ consignment of smuggled goods on a container ship seized by Chinese authorities after attempts were made to smuggle it into China. The frozen meat cargo worth US$10 million also contained other beef, chicken wings and pork from the US, Brazil and Australia. One Australian industry commentator has estimated the smuggled meat trade from Hong Kong, Schenzen and Vietnam accounts for 500,000 tonnes each year. Lower tariff rates for New Zealand meat, as a result of the free trade deal with China will make this trade less profitable for smugglers. However, concerns are for food safety of the smuggled perishable products as the cold chain may not be managed efficiently.

Click on any of the links to read more about each item.